Sunland
Peanut Butter Part I: The Taste Test
Product Review by FBWorld Team
Sunland
peanut butter is not your average, run-of-the-mill peanut butter.
It's made exclusively with the highest quality Valencia peanuts,
grown in Texas and New Mexico, and available in a wide range of
flavors, from traditional creamy and crunchy, to the not so traditional
raspberry and vanilla-cranberry. We were told that Sunland peanut
butter was some of the best stuff out there, so we decided to
put that claim to the test.
To see just how Sunland Peanut Butter compared
with the usual brands, we put them head-to-head in our taste test.
We used the national brands like Jiff, Skippy, and Adams as benchmarks.
Our panel tasted each benchmark peanut butter and scored it out
of ten, based on texture and overall taste. The tasters were given
a spoon of each brand's peanut butter as well as a dollop on a
Ritz cracker. Each taster scored the samples without input from
other tasters. Afterwords, we compiled the scores and averaged
them out, rounding to the nearest half-point.
The
results were very clear.
TYPE |
SCORE / 10 |
Simply
Jiff |
4.5 |
Jiff Creamy |
5 |
Skippy Creamy |
5.5 |
Skippy Super
Chunk |
6.5 |
Adams Peanut
Butter "Organic" |
7 |
Adams Peanut
Butter "100 Natural" |
7.5 |
Next, we tested
the Sunland Peanut Butter varietals on our panel
and repeated the scoring process.
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Valencia
Creamy
Going head to head with our benchmark peanut butters, the
Valencia Creamy from Sunland is head and shoulders better
than the pack. Its superior taste, a very nice balance of
creamy and nutty flavors, had no real competition from the
national brands.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9
/ 10 |
|
Valencia
Natural Crunchy
When compared with the other crunchy peanut butters, the Valencia
Crunchy is far superior. There is a great balance between
sweet and savory. The chunks of peanut butter are plentiful
and very tasty without impeding spreading. Valencia Natural
Crunchy like Valencia Creamy is the gold standard in its category.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9.5
/ 10 |
 |
Valencia
Creamy Organic
This has to be the gold standard in both taste and pure nutritional
value. It's delightfully creamy as the oil does not over power
the rich flavors of the Valencia peanut, which are rich and
more robust than in the natural spread.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9
/ 10 |
|
Valencia
Crunchy Organic
The entire panel agreed, this crunchy peanut butter is the
best crunchy peanut better they have ever tasted. Bold roasted
peanut flavors are coupled perfectly with just the right amount
of sweetness, and the texture was quite creamy, without skimping
on the crunchy peanut bits. We were also blown away by its
how well it spread compared to the other chunky peanut butters.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 10
/ 10 |
Sunland
Peanut Butter Part II: The Flavor Infusions
Besides their traditional
creamy and crunchy, Sunland offers a wide variety
of flavor infused peanut butters. We had our tasters run through
a number of them. He's what they thought of each.
 |
Caramel
Natural Spread
Caramel Natural Spread is absolutely heaven paired with
raisin toast. The flavor is very authentic and rich, making
this more of a desert peanut butter. The consistency of
this creamy, and truly smooth for something like caramel,
which is typically gooey.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 7
/ 10 |
 |
Raspberry
Natural Spread
No need for the raspberry jam anymore. This infusion from
Sunland provides all the flavor necessary . It's nice and
creamy in texture and holds the fruit and peanut flavors in
perfect harmony. The raspberry flavor might be a bit sweet
for some, but everyone on our panel enjoyed it very much.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 8
/ 10 |
 |
Dark
Chocolate Natural
Dark Chocolate Natural Spread was rich and wonderful. It was
a great partner for Banana's. The panel liked it because its
texture was not as creamy as Nutella and it had a more authentic
chocolate taste.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 8.5
/ 10 |
 |
Banana
Natural Spread
The Banana Natural Spread was what peaked our curiosity about
Sunland, but, in the end, it was not one of the best flavor.
This particular spread was dryer than most of the other varieties
and its flavor tasted more like banana chips than actual bananas.
The quality of the peanut butter was still very good. The
flavoring just wasn't as spot on as the others.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 6
/ 10 |
 |
Vanilla
Cranberry Organic
This is not a convention combination, but Vanilla & Cranberry
worked surprisingly well together. For people who are looking
for a mild taste adventure, this might just be in your wheal-house.
Our panel thought it worked best with raisin bread because
of the convergence of sweet flavors.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 8.5
/ 10 |
 |
Dark
Chocolate Organic
This is an amazing product that is smooth like melted chocolate
but has all the health benefits of Valencia organic peanut
butter. It was the first jar to be finished off by the staff.
The creamy, authentic chocolate taste was perfect for our
late afternoon sweet cravings. One taste and you'll probably
be hooked like we all were.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 9.5
/ 10 |
 |
Tai
Ginger Organic
On it's own, this flavor is a mild adventure, to say the least.
The Asian spices give the peanut butter an awkward kick because
they flavors aren't in equal proportions. Combined with the
right ingredients, we think it could be fabulous for cooking,
but none of our tasters would recommend it for your next peanut
butter sandwich.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 4
/ 10 |
 |
Onion
and Parsley Organic
This was another of the most unorthodox flavors from Sunland.
Again, like the Tai Ginger, the convergence of bright onion
and parsley flavors with roasted peanut flavors weren't quite
in balance. For those with more adventurous taste buds, there
could be something to like here, but for our panel, they preferred
the other flavors.
FBWORLD TEAM SCORE: 4.5
/ 10 |
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